The SutureBridge™ tendon repair technique, developed by Arthrex, Inc., and disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0191849, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, consists of a tied medial row constructed with two threaded suture anchors, combined with knotless lateral fixation using two Arthrex PushLock® anchors. The construct, shown in FIG. 1A, enhances footprint compression and promotes tendon healing-to-bone with minimal knot tying.
The SpeedBridge™ technique, also developed by Arthrex, Inc., uses a threaded swivel anchor (such as disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0004659, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference) combined with FiberTape® (disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0192631), the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference) to create a quick and secure SutureBridge construct with no knots and only two suture passing steps.
In the SpeedBridge™ technique, a swivel anchor, preferably an Arthrex 4.75 mm SwiveLock® C, loaded with one strand of FiberTape®, is inserted into a medial bone socket. A suture shuttle such as FiberLink™ is used to shuttle both FiberTape® tails through the rotator cuff simultaneously. A FiberLink™ tail is passed through the rotator cuff using a suture passing instrument such as the Scorpion™. The tails of the FiberTape® are loaded through the FiberLink™ loop and shuttled through the rotator cuff. These steps are repeated for the second medial row anchor.
FIG. 1B depicts the SwiveLock® C loaded with one strand of FiberTape® being inserted into the bone socket.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1C, one FiberTape® tail from each medial anchor is retrieved and loaded through the SwiveLock® C eyelet. The loaded eyelet is inserted into a prepared lateral bone socket until the anchor body contacts bone, and the tension is adjusted if necessary.
The SwiveLock® C driver is rotated in a clockwise direction to complete the insertion. Using a cutter, the FiberTape® tails are cut, one and a time, to complete the technique. A completed suture in accordance with the SpeedBridge™ technique is shown in FIG. 1D.
In the above-described SpeedBridge™ technique, it can be difficult to shuttle (pass) the two FiberTape® tails through the rotator cuff simultaneously. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a length of FiberTape® with a splice leading to a single tail that can be easily loaded into the tissue passing instrument, and then cut to again have two FiberTape® tails for completing the SpeedBridge™ construct.